TheCable

A federal capital territory (FCT) high court in Kubwa nullified the election of Ifeanyi Ubah as the senator representing Anambra south on January 17.

Bello Kawu, the judge, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the certificate of return issued to him and to assign another to Obinna Uzoh, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as the senator elect of the district.

In April 2019, the court made the same pronouncement in the suit filed by Uzoh challenging Ubah’s victory on the grounds that he (Ubah) presented a forged National Examination Council (NECO) certificate to INEC.

But Ubah approached the court to set aside the judgment, saying he was not given fair hearing in the matter.

He said he was neither served with the court process nor hearing notice in the suit before the court delivered judgment against him.

Consequently, the judge ordered a stay of execution on December 4, restraining the senate president from swearing in Uzoh pending the hearing and determination of the motion challenging the verdict.

Ruling on Ubah’s application on January 17, the judge held that the motion to vacate his judgment lacked merit, and accordingly dismissed it.

Responding to an enquiry made by Ubah’s Young Progressive Party (YPP),  NECO said the senator’s certificate is authentic, and that it was issued to him in 2003.

Speaking with TheCable on Thursday, Azeez Sani, spokesman of NECO, said the examination body stands by its earlier response to the enquiry on Ubah’s certificate.

”We have already responded to the enquiry on Ubah’s certificate made by his party, and we stand by that”, he said.

But an analysis by TheCable appears to show some discrepancies between the NECO certificate Ubah submitted to INEC and that which the examination body certified.

While the copy submitted to INEC has serial No: 303865920 (note 3038), the certified NECO copy has serial No: 303565920 (note 3035).

Also, the two certificates vary in certain elements like logo and font.

So, could it be that Ubah has two NECO certificates or could it be a case of ”certificate cloning”.

These are the two documents.

The copy submitted to INEC

NECO’s certified true copy